After rising during morning trading, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) hit resistance at 733.59 at 10:45 a.m. ET, and has continued to slide in Wednesday’s trading action. At 1:59 p.m. ET, the Russell was down 6.12, or 0.84%, at 723.67.

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas Hoenig gave the bears support after he said late Tuesday that inflationary pressures “now stand at unacceptably high levels.” Hoenig is not a current voting member of the policy-making Federal Open Market Committee. U.S. consumers are feeling the pinch on their wallet, especially with oil prices surging to record highs. In recent trading, June crude oil contracts were up $1.51 to $123.35 a barrel.

A rising U.S. dollar combined with a positive productivity report kept investors bullish during early trading. In afternoon trading, the greenback is up to $1.5387 versus the euro. The U.S. dollar closed at $1.5524 against the Euro on Tuesday.

Also encouraging the bulls was the Labor Department’s Wednesday morning announcement that non-farm business productivity increased at an annual rate of 2.2% during the first quarter. Economists anticipated a 1.5% increase. Unit labor costs rose slower than expected at an annual rate of 2.2%, compared with . . .

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